Texas Democrat accuses Abbott of ‘alliance with white nationalists’ over pardon

Miranda Nazzaro
Thu, May 16, 2024

Texas Democrat accuses Abbott of ‘alliance with white nationalists’ over pardon

Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro (Texas) on Thursday accused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) of having an “alliance with white nationalists” after he pardoned an Army sergeant who was previously convicted for shooting and killing a Black Lives Matter (BLM) protester in 2020.

“Before Daniel Perry murdered a veteran in 2020, he told a friend he ‘might go to Dallas to shoot looters.’ A year before, he wrote, ‘to [sic] bad we can’t get paid for hunting Muslims,'” Castro wrote in a statement Thursday. “Governor Abbott’s alliance with white nationalists is putting dangerous people on our streets.”

The remarks came shortly after Abbott announced Thursday he issued a pardon for Daniel Perry, who was found guilty in April of last year in the death of Garrett Foster during a July 2020 protest in Austin, Texas.

Perry, who is white and worked as an Uber driver at the time of the incident, had dropped a passenger off in downtown Austin and tried to move his car through a crowd of demonstrators when he said Foster, who was legally armed with an AK-47, aimed his rifle at him.

Perry, who was also legally carrying a gun, fired at Foster, claiming he feared for his life.

He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, angering conservatives who argued he acted out of self-defense. Abbott subsequently asked the state’s parole board to review Perry’s case.

The board, appointed by Abbott, handed down a unanimous recommendation to pardon Perry, prompting the governor’s Thursday proclamation.

Perry will be granted a full pardon and “restoration of full civil rights of citizenship” as part of Abbott’s proclamation.

Prosecutors argued Foster did not raise a gun, pointing to eyewitness accounts that dispute Perry’s claims. Documents released last year showed Perry also shared racist content in private messages, including one where he likened BLM protesters to monkeys.

“I am a racist because I do not agree with people acting like animals at the zoo,” he wrote. “I was on the side” of the protesters, he said, until they “started with the looting and the violence.”

Other messages included white supremacist memes and Perry discussing the prospect of traveling to Dallas to shoot “looters.”

Castro has served Texas’s 20th Congressional District since 2013, representing about half of San Antonio, located about 80 miles outside of Austin.

The Hill reached out to Abbott’s office for comment.

Murderer who called BLM protestors "monkeys" pardoned by Abbott

Griffin Eckstein

NEW REPUBLIC
Thu, May 16, 2024 

Greg Abbott James Manning/PA Images via Getty Images


Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday pardoned convicted killer Daniel Perry, who shot a protestor during a Black Lives Matter demonstration.

Perry, who in 2020 murdered 28-year-old Black Lives Matter protester and Air Force veteran Garrett Foster, was released shortly following the order, which came after a parole board recommendation and significant far-right support for the convicted killer.

Perry killed Foster — who walked up to Perry’s car with a permitted firearm to warn him, as he allegedly attempted to drive his car into a crowd of protestors — after sending scores of racist text messages, including one noting that he “might have to kill a few” demonstrators, and another calling Black Lives Matter demonstrators “monkeys.”

Yet, Abbott instructed his state’s parole board to justify a commutation of Perry’s sentence over a year ago, as Texas law requires a recommendation from the body. Per the three-member parole board appointed by the Texas governor, the 25-year sentence and a ban on gun ownership were overturned unanimously.

“Texas has one of the strongest 'Stand Your Ground' laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” Abbott said in a statement announcing the release of Perry. “I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation."

Perry’s self-defense argument, which failed to convince jurors after eyewitness testimony that Foster didn’t draw a weapon before being killed, and evidence that Foster had the safety on and no ammunition in the gun was presented by prosecutors, was the crux of the parole board's findings.

Perry isn’t the first extremist to walk free after killing demonstrators. In 2021, Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of homicide after killing two people in Kenosha, Wisconsin, claiming self defense. Rittenhouse, 17 at the time of the killings, rode the national attention from the killings into a de-facto position as a defender of right-wing violence, calling for Perry’s pardon.

Opinion
Greg Abbott’s Pardon of Daniel Perry Includes a Dark Detail

Talia Jane

NEW REPUBLIC
Thu, May 16, 2024 


On Thursday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott approved a full pardon for Daniel Perry, an Uber driver who shot and killed anti–police brutality protester Garrett Foster in 2020. Perry was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a Texas state district court judge in May 2023.

But that’s not all that came with the pardon. In a disturbing move, Abbott also restored Perry’s firearm rights.

“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” Abbott said in a statement announcing the pardon.

Abbott, a far-right governor who has openly feuded with the federal government about migrants and LGBTQ+ rights—and sent swarms of state troopers to violently clear college Gaza solidarity encampments—has sought to pardon Perry since he was convicted.

Stand Your Ground laws were popularized and brought into law by conservative legislators following the vigilante murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. The laws serve to negate “duty to retreat,” which are contrasting sets of laws prohibiting the use of deadly force in situations where a person could reasonably flee to safety.

In 2020, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests that year, Perry encountered a protest while driving for Uber in Austin, Texas. According to Austin police, Perry stopped his car, honking at the protesters, before driving his car into the march. Perry then shot Garrett Foster, who was legally open-carrying an AK-47 while pushing his fiancée’s wheelchair. Perry’s attorneys argued Foster raised his rifle at Perry and he acted in self-defense, but witness testimony and video from the march disputed these claims. After his murder conviction, messages and posts by Perry self-identifying as “a racist” and wanting to “go to Dallas to shoot looters” were released to the public.

Abbott pushed to secure a pardon for Perry immediately after he was sentenced, directing the parole board to review the case the day after the 2023 verdict. Abbott’s pardon was announced almost immediately after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended it, The Texas Tribune reported Thursday.

Former US Army sergeant released from prison after Gov. Abbott pardons him for 2020 fatal Black Lives Matter protest shooting

Emma Tucker, Ed Lavandera and Ashley Killough, CNN
Fri, May 17, 2024 


Daniel Perry, a former US Army sergeant who was convicted of murdering a protester at a Black Lives Matter rally in 2020, was released from prison Thursday after he was pardoned by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Abbott’s decision comes after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted unanimously Thursday to recommend a full pardon and the restoration of firearm rights for Perry, who was sentenced last year to 25 years in prison. Shortly after he was pardoned, Perry was released from Texas Department of Criminal Justice custody, a spokesperson for the agency told CNN.

Abbott asked the board to conduct an investigation in April 2023, and in a statement on Thursday, the board said its “investigative efforts encompassed a meticulous review of pertinent documents, from police reports to court records, witness statements, and interviews with individuals linked to the case.”


Perry faced between five and 99 years in prison for fatally shooting 28-year-old Air Force veteran Garrett Foster at an Austin, Texas, racial justice rally two months after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Shortly after Perry’s conviction in April 2023, Abbott said he wanted to pardon Perry and issued an unusual request for the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to expedite a review of the case before a sentence was handed down.

“Among the voluminous files reviewed by the Board, they considered information provided by the Travis County District Attorney, the full investigative report on Daniel Perry, plus a review of all the testimony provided at trial,” Abbott said in a statement.

“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney. I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation,” Abbott said.

The governor can only pardon Perry if the Board of Pardons and Paroles recommends it, according to Texas law.

Foster’s mother, Sheila Foster, said she learned of the pardon from a social media post by the governor and couldn’t believe it.

“Everything that has happened is wrong on so many levels, and I don’t understand why,” Sheila Foster told CNN’s Laura Coates Thursday. “It is so crystal clear to me that this man needs to be in prison for the rest of his life – not a mere 25 years. Why he wouldn’t even have to serve a year? I don’t understand.”

Doug O’Connell, an attorney for Perry, said in a statement his client is “thrilled” to be free and thanked Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole.

“I spoke with Daniel this afternoon. He is thrilled and elated to be free. Daniel is also optimistic for his future,” O’Connell said in a statement obtained by CNN. “He wishes that this tragic event never happened and wishes he never had to defend himself against Mr. Foster’s unlawful actions. At the same time, Daniel recognizes that the Foster family is grieving. We are anxious to see Daniel reunited with his family and loved ones.”

Prosecutors said Perry, who was stationed at Fort Hood, initiated the fatal encounter when he ran a red light and drove his vehicle into a crowd gathered at the protest. Foster was openly carrying an assault-style rifle – legal in Texas – and approached Perry’s car and motioned for him to lower his window, at which point Perry fatally shot him with a handgun, prosecutors said.

“Today, a convicted murderer will walk the streets of Texas. Texas Republicans have once again proven that they cannot keep the public safe, they are not the party of ‘tough on crime,’ and they are not the party of ‘law and order,’” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement responding to the pardon.

He added: “Make no mistake: Daniel Perry is a murderer who was on a mission to commit violence against Texans, and today our justice system was hijacked for political gain.”

In a statement on Thursday, Foster’s former fiancée, Whitney Mitchell, said she is “heartbroken by this lawlessness,” adding Abbott has shown that “only certain lives matter.”

“He has made us all less safe. Daniel Perry texted his friends about plans to murder a protestor he disagreed with,” she said. “After a lengthy trial, with an abundance of evidence, 12 impartial Texans determined he that he carried out that plan, and murdered the love of my life.”

“With this pardon, the Governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan, impugned that jury’s just verdict, and declared that citizens can be killed with impunity as long as they hold political views that are different from those in power,” Mitchell said.

During Perry’s sentencing hearing last May, the prosecution asked that he be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison. They highlighted a stream of racist and inflammatory social media posts Perry wrote prior to the shooting and the defense’s own analysis of his mental disorders and mindset.

“This man is a loaded gun ready to go off on any perceived threat that he thinks he has to address in his black and white world and his us versus them mentality,” a prosecutor said.

Perry’s defense team asked for a sentence of 10 years, citing his lack of criminal history, his psychological issues, including complex post-traumatic stress disorder, and praise from several of his military colleagues.

They argued his actions were justified as self-defense. Perry told police during an interview that he believed Foster was going to aim the firearm at him, according to CNN affiliate KEYE.

Foster’s mother was “in shock” after learning of Abbott’s pardon, according to Quentin Brogdon, the family’s former attorney who spoke with the mother on Thursday.

“To say that she is devastated is an understatement,” Brogdon told CNN in a phone interview.

The family had pursued a civil case against Perry but dropped the case after he was convicted last year, satisfied with the jury “holding him accountable,” Brogdon said, adding the family will be considering any possible legal avenues but the prospects are “grim.”

“It’s hard to believe that the issuance of this pardon does not have some kind of political motivation,” Brogdon said, citing Abbott’s involvement in the case after conservative commentators criticized Perry’s conviction last year.
Perry diagnosed with complex PTSD and autism

For the defense, Greg Hupp, a forensic psychologist who examined Perry twice in 2023, testified during his sentencing he diagnosed him with complex post-traumatic stress disorder and autism spectrum disorder.

Combined with his military experience, Perry had an “us versus them” mentality in which his mindset was, “I protect myself. I am ready for any imminent attack and anything out there can be a potential threat,” Hupp said.

On cross-examination, the prosecution noted that military records did not indicate either of these psychological issues.

During Perry’s sentencing, Mitchell testified through tears how her life had changed since his death.

Mitchell is a quadruple amputee and said Foster had been her sole caretaker for the past 11 years, helping her get ready for the day, eat and work as a costume designer. They had bought a house in Austin together, and she said it’s difficult to stay there without him.

“It’s hard every day that I’m there. It’s hard to sleep in my bed because he’s not there,” she said. “He was my main caregiver for 11 years and I’ve had friends who have been taking care of me and have to learn how to do all that stuff that Garrett was doing for me for a decade, and it’s hard because I had to get comfortable being vulnerable.”
Perry made comments on social media about killing protesters, documents show

Documents related to the case that were unsealed by a Travis County judge following Perry’s conviction show he had a yearslong history of making racist comments in messages and social media posts.

In a Facebook message from May 2020, just weeks before the shooting, Perry told a friend he “might have to kill a few people” who were rioting outside his apartment. The documents also contain a May 2020 text sent by Perry that said, “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters.” Some messages included “white power” memes.

Perry wrote in a 2019 message that it was “to bad we can’t get paid for hunting Muslims in Europe.”

In a June 1, 2020, social media comment, Perry compared the Black Lives Matter movement to “a zoo full of monkeys that are freaking out flinging their sh*t,” the documents show.

Clint Broden, Perry’s attorney, criticized the release of the documents in a statement to CNN, calling it a political decision by prosecutors.

CNN’s Eric Levenson, Lucy Kafanov, Joe Sutton and Nouran Salahieh contributed to this report.